It's 2014 and Big Brother IS Watching: 1984 coming to the big screen again

SONY, the studio behind Still Alice (where, oh where is the trailer? I can't wait for everyone to see it, I loved the movie so much) has hired a writer and a director to tackle 1984. It will be the third time around for George Orwell's dystopian classic where individuals are not allowed to have even freedom of thought, let alone action. Love? Forget about it.

Ironic isn't though, Big Brother is Watching used to sound so ominous and threatening. Now the government knows who we're talking to, and likely what we're saying, while corporations know many of our thoughts, plot our behavior patterns and we don't seem to care much, just say, gimme more, gimme more. Our complacency is what's pretty frightening to me.

So ... Paul Greengrass has been hired to direct the film based on a script by James Graham. Graham also wrote the book for an upcoming musical adaptation of Finding Neverland. Which could be heaven or well, you know, hell!

Greengrass is the director best known for Captain Phillips with Tom Hanks, and the Bourne movies and have you heard? He and Matt Damon are reteaming for numero four. Not sure what that does for Jeremy Renner and his Bourne Legacy off-shoots but knowing Damon will Be Bourne Again pleases me greatly. Not usually what I'd call my kind of flick, but I could watch the Bourne Indentity with Damon and Franka Potente as Maria, the woman he falls in love with, anytime. Such a strong team, a true partnership, which is my idea of romantic perfection. We're in this thing together.

Whoops, back to 1984 —some days I wish I could — no word on who they're thinking of to play Winston Smith, the man who dares to buck the system. In the last version which came out in, wait for it ... 1984, John Hurt played Winston with Richard Burton, in his final role, as O'Brien, the high-ranking government official. Suzanna Hamilton was the woman who Hurt falls in love with. I'm not familiar with her work but she seems to have had a long if subdued career since.

I haven't read the book since, when, high school? so the details are fuzzy. But the concept is cemented into our universal subconscious, Big Brother IS Watching and that's not a good thing. I'll repeat that - It's NOT a good thing!

Let's take a look at the trailer for the magnificent looking John Hurt/Richard Burton version and see if that sparks some casting ideas. I'd love to hear your thoughts. Oh yeah, I know you're out there, and I even know where you came from. But have no fear, unless you share them with me, I don't know your thoughts. Not yet, anyway.